


and the world stares in awe of their eclipse

by Merakkli



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artistic Liberties-Map of Hyrule, Both characters are slightly younger, Cold Weather, F/F, Mipha doesn't have her grace (yet), Pre-Slash to Slash, Snowed In, Very Pre-Calamity, references to blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27801934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merakkli/pseuds/Merakkli
Summary: Mipha and Zelda are young. They know their duty and they know it well, and neither has ever strayed from their designated path.Mipha, heir apparent to a Domain that looks past her, will not shake from what little she knows.If she did, it would only be for her.
Relationships: Mipha/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 43





	and the world stares in awe of their eclipse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tebasaki_chicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tebasaki_chicken/gifts).



> Zelpha snowed in prompt for a thanksgiving gift exchange, this one for tebasaki_chicken! With an extremely slow build up to the prompt itself. Whoops.

The Domain is loud at this time of year. Zora who had left to hunt for the earliest parts of the year and tourists of all other races come pouring in with the slow arrival of summer, often seeking to avoid the oppressive heat with the streams and lakes abundant to the bridge between Lanayru and Akkala. Mipha always finds herself busy at this time of year, to greet and calm people before the noise ricocheting around the Domain becomes so thick, it hurts.

Despite the annual influx of people, the reservoir lake offers a kind of solitude that remains unbroken, regardless of the guards that plague Mipha. She would never admit that the interior of the Domain grows more suffocating with each passing year, that she can't tell if it comes from her natural responsibilities as heir apparent to the Domain's leadership, or the burning in her chest that threatens to engulf her like smoke, the one that screams at her to run and not come back.

It's a feeling that always starts and ends at her hands, the tips of her fingers. She looks down and keeps expecting them to blister with unshed heat, but they never do. Sometimes, when she raises her eyes to the night sky, the stars just above her are blotted out by something dark, unseen. It feels more like home than anything the Domain offers.

She has no title worth mentioning past  _ Princess,  _ all skills necessary to be a ruler still in the midst of cultivation. There is nothing more to her but the burning.

When Mipha had read the letter Zelda sent heralding her visit to her father, she had shamefully omitted everything but what was necessary to the matter of her arrival. The letter waits for her each night tucked underneath the jewelry scattered across her nightstand, the only unkempt part of her room. She reads Zelda's words over again each night until she arrives, each spit of anger at her father and each compliment aimed for her, until the burning rushes to her face instead and she dives under the water to cool down before she boils.

A week after the letter, Zelda is waiting for Mipha on the dam that overlooks both the reservoir and Rutala River. No guards hover around her, which is unusual, but Zelda's smile is surely all the brighter for it while she throws her arms around Mipha the moment she's within reach. Her touch sets Mipha's fins flaring with heat. Her passion is unexpected for a princess, to be certain, and she's never been held like this by her own people for fear of sparking offense, but the thought comes with more envy than dismay when Mipha tries and fails to return that ardency.

"I received your letter," Mipha stammers, careful not to hook her claws into Zelda's clothes as she returns the hug. She pushes down what regret she feels for not holding tighter when Zelda pulls away. "It...we, the Domain, were under the impression that his majesty and your new guard would be present as well."

Something has happened, certainly, but Zelda looks away before Mipha can ask with only the barest hint of a smirk on her lips. "They were detained," she says with a nervous laugh, pulling Mipha closer by her shoulders. The touch is so gentle, it may well not exist. "Which means we must spend the time we have alone well. Will you stay, even if they're not here?"

Mipha's father likely wouldn't let her up to the dam alone if he knew there were no knights to accompany them. She still succumbs to her traitorous heart when she takes a step in the direction she offers and Zelda's face lights up in hope. She follows her across the pale blue walkway that borders the lake, under the mountainous overhang and to where it overlooks the river below.

Zelda has never given any appearance of caring when the Domain inevitably soaks her clothing through, and she doesn't care now as she sits against the foam-slicked surface of the dam, just over where the waterfall crashes against the luminous stones easing out of the cliff face. Despite the rage with which the water bursts from the spillways, the river it meets is calm and dark, so far away it looks like black leather. But the waterfall is full and rich, one of the best in the Domain for swimming, and the potential to slip and fall carries no fear for Mipha, or Zelda so long as they are together. 

"It's truly beautiful out here," Zelda speaks, pulling her hair to one shoulder. "I couldn't imagine being able to live somewhere so...magical, each day."

Mipha could say the same about Hyrule Castle, certainly, but there's a sadness shadowing Zelda's brow that she knows well enough to see mirrored. She nods instead and fidgets with one of her claws.

"We only have a day together. I know I promised months ago that I'd have more time soon, but father only brought me here to pray to the spring in the Highlands." She sighs so sharply it's violent, squeezing the cool edge of the stone. "He refuses to listen to me  _ or  _ to my research. The one up there is for the Zora like the spring at Mount Lanayru is for Hylians--it's bound to make Hylia take her power  _ away _ , not give it to me!"

"You found documents on the Temple of Zora's Fountain in Hyrule Castle?" Mipha has no idea if that is allowed, if information regarding the last shrine to their patron deity is treated as sacred and exclusive to Zora as the shrine itself, but Zelda is well-known for treating the matters of other races with care. Mipha trusts her out of anyone at the castle to give them their due respect.

"Only a few halves of pages, unfortunately. I wish it didn't make so much sense to find so little. The priests all insist that Hylia made us--the Hylians, I mean. I think they intend to live and let live with the other hyruleans, but all it means is that there's a severe lack of information on religion that isn't based around Hylian culture. I find it utterly foolish that they let it grow so sparse--if I am to rule over 'all races' when I am queen, what will there be to rule from such a distance?"

Zelda falters somewhere in the middle of her next sentence and grows silent,, turning to Mipha with what she already knows will be an apology. For speaking too loudly or for too long, she doesn't know. But when their eyes meet, it dies on Zelda's tongue, fading instead into a soft smile. 

"I much prefer the old goddesses anyway, and their servants with them. I would rather be a queen of Nayru, not Hylia. She doesn't seem wise to me at all. She might give me my powers if She were." Zelda brings her hands to her lips, and Mipha watches with helpless joy as she laughs for the first time today. "Or at least She would stop losing track of Her triforce!"

Mipha finds herself laughing too, then. It's a moment separated from the weight of their lack of time together, one she wishes they would have more often. 

Zelda breaks it only somewhat by inching closer to Mipha. Her clothing sticks to the wet stone floor as she moves. "Mount Lanayru is still restricted to me until I'm seventeen. My father and I both know that that is...our only chance to avert the Calamity, if it will ever come. I just wish he would stop pretending otherwise."

Mipha nods, squeezing her hands together where they rest in her lap. "I fear that even if Zora were allowed up to the spring, father would never let me leave the Domain for so long. He worries. Sometimes it feels like he worries more than yours."

She wonders if he has the right to. Zelda has such limited training with a weapon where Mipha is skilled and strong with her trident, and despite their shared limitations with experience she can't help but believe that the Domain has far more monsters than Castle Town. Mipha should be enough to stay by her side. To protect her.

Perhaps in a better world, they could be together like that. A princess and her knight, free to set out to anywhere in Hyrule they both wanted. Mipha would fully reject any royal title she was given for that, and she'd likely grin like a fool while doing so.

Zelda sighs, wistfully this time. She closes her eyes slowly, worrying her lower lip. "There are...later translations of our creation, from before records of Hylia even existed and the Golden Trio were the only ones in their pantheon. The priests tend to overlook those, but I still read them. They mostly say Din made our bodies, and Farore formed life in them, but...what part of that made it  _ worth _ living? They would only have been husks of Hylians, not truly  _ alive _ ." She opens her eyes only to meet Mipha's. "They say...Nayru made that part of us. The emotions. They said that our wants are sacred and nothing to be feared." Zelda reaches out for Mipha, hands stopping just short of her head fins and coming instead to rest on her shoulder. "What do you want, Mipha?"

Mipha considers, or she at least feels obligated to make a slight show of it.

"I want to travel," she says after enough moments have passed to answer. Unsaid between them follows  _ I want to travel with you.  _ Neither is allowed to say that. 

Zelda smiles. She looks out over Hyrule, green and shrouded in fog despite the heat of the day. "If you could go anywhere you wanted, no repercussions at all, where would you travel to?"

"I--I don't know." Mipha pulls away from her at the question, thinking. Zelda just hums.

"The Rito at the castle have told me stories of great chasms on the north and west sides of Hyrule, ones that only the dragons can cross." Zelda leans back, tilting her head towards Mipha. "I can't help but wonder what is on the opposite side to ours--what lies there, just beyond our grasp. I would go there and find out." She lowers her hand, fingers brushing against Mipha's. 

"I think...I would like to see the open ocean." Zelda nods, eyes suddenly wide with interest, but Mipha still covers her face like it's shameful. "It feels so tame compared to yours."

"It's not! If anything, mine is too farfetched!" She leans onto her side to take Mipha's hands away from her face, mindful as always of her claws. "The only thing we know truly exists of the other sides of Hyrule are the dragons. It could well be absolutely nothing out there."

"I'd quite like to see a dragon as well," Mipha squeaks, face heating in such close proximity to Zelda's. When she laughs, her breath ghosts over Mipha's lips. 

"I've heard that only people blessed by a goddess can see them. Maybe we could find out someday."

Someday, perhaps, but nowhere near today, and there are so many factors that take nothing more than waiting. Zelda must pick up on how that idea saddens Mipha, because when she looks to the waterfall and back to her something has changed in her expression.

"Mipha," she says, voice gone sly and low with tamped-down excitement. "How often do you travel up and down this dam?"

Mipha steadfastly ignores the twist in her stomach at the look in Zelda's eyes, breaking away to stare down the length of the waterfall once more. "Quite often. This is Sidon's favorite spot to practice his swimming." 

Zelda lets go of her, moving away, but it's the click of her metal-rimmed boots that startles her into looking up again. She stands slowly, body taut with energy, face brighter than Mipha might have ever seen it before, and somehow she instantly knows what she's about to do.

"I trust you," Zelda says, like it's the most natural thing in the world to say in this situation, and lets herself fall to the side. 

Mipha is diving before she has a moment to think about it, sweeping Zelda into her arms almost before she has the chance to start falling. Her arms wrap tight around Mipha's waist, tight enough to hurt if she had the presence of mind to feel anything but Zelda's body pressed so easily against her own. 

It's a method she knows in a way that transcends muscle memory, turning her fins into the heavy rush of the waterfall until they catch against the pouring water and spurs them both onward. Zelda's weight in her arms doesn't change her instinct any more than if it were Sidon's first time falling. It comes so naturally to her but even so it is  _ new  _ in a way she forgot was possible, and she can't help but wonder what Zelda is feeling right now, if any goddess-given magic or prayers will feel as powerful as this. The thick streams of water are falling slower than they are and she's holding Zelda too close to see her properly. but what little she can see is gorgeous and  _ alive  _ before they hit the water as one being, not two.

Zelda is laughing almost before she surfaces, still clinging tight to Mipha's shoulders. Her hair is slicked against them both, spiraling around them through the water like liquid gold. Like a halo.

She's still giggling into the crook of Mipha's neck when she gets her breath back, not entirely from the exhilaration of their fall. Zelda is trembling hard, but nothing more suggests that it comes from a place of fear. She kicks at the water with shaky limbs until she gives up and lets Mipha carry them both, treading calmly above the surface.

For a moment they're suspended there together, weightless, timeless against the gently kissing current of the water.

Mipha only breaks it when she can't take it anymore. "You're...much heavier than Sidon, princess," she whispers like her heart isn't about to burst out of her chest. "I don't think I could bring you back up."

"My apologies," Zelda says, breathlessly and in a way that says she might've been planning this before she'd even seen Mipha today. "Let's go to Necluda. We'll see the dragon together."

"You are suggesting I run away from the Domain?"

Zelda's face is sparkling with rivulets of water and her eyes are sparkling with the mischief Mipha  _ never  _ gets to see from her anymore when she pulls away a few inches and grins.

"I am suggesting you run away with  _ me _ ."

Mipha has no idea what she's doing. She is entirely out of her element, has never gone this far outside of the Domain in her life--and if not for Zelda's firm but kind grip on her arm, she would already be hopelessly lost amidst the winding paths of the mountains.

Still, she can't bring herself to regret it.

The grass is coarse and brown along this side of the mountain, just close enough to the snowfields to sting with frost under Mipha's bare feet. Zelda's clothes have long since dried, likely somewhere within the flat of land separating Rutala river from the narrow bay encircling Lanayru itself, but the work outfit she wore to the Domain is still woefully underdressed for the snow dusting the glade only yards ahead of them. She has already offered Mipha a smile and the reassurance that she can handle the cold,  _ truly _ , but Mipha grows more uncertain the closer they come to the snowfields.

The Naydra Snowfields that lie before them are trapped in an eternal sort of winter, caught in below-freezing temperatures despite the heat of summer glaring behind it, but to Mipha's knowledge extreme weather has never once stopped Hylians from making a place their home. The Domain is almost never so cold, owing to the humidity and closeness to Death Mountain, but Zora have never been known to be particularly prone to freezing. She still can't help but compare the outfits on the Hylians coming to and from the village within to Zelda's thin clothes.

Once they're just over the crest of the hill that borders the snowfields, Zelda stops so quickly Mipha nearly bumps into her and runs to duck behind the nearest outcropping of rocks, shielding her from the soft bustle of noise rising from the hamlet below. 

"These people are all monks and priestesses," she breathes at Mipha's worried look, motioning for her until she crouches by her side, "And I'm supposed to be the  _ goddess incarnate.  _ They'll know me if I just walk into their village." 

"What should we do? The trail to the mountain leads through it." Mipha doesn't know when or why she got so invested in Zelda's plan. To prove that she can? To stay alongside Zelda as long as she can allow? Perhaps to ease the burning that lingers at her fingertips even now, so far into colder temperatures.

"If we can cross this path to the other side of the mountain range, I know a way that will take us close, but not  _ to _ Mount Lanayru. It should be easy to spot the dragon atop her spring from there, and we won't break any sacred rules." She helps Mipha stand, tucking all the loose hair she can into the collar of her work outfit and pulling her back over the rocks.

The opposite side of the cliffs that surround the promenade are much steeper to climb, and it feels impossible for them to do so without anyone noticing, but Zelda waits for a noticeable ease in the traffic on the road and ushers them both across. Mipha stays as close to her as she can, and if Zelda cares about her claws digging into her sides she doesn't say anything until she's gotten them both up the few jagged handholds this side offers.

This side of the mountain is far more lush than the other, at least, and while sharp peaks still break open the earth from time to time the majority of the peak is smooth and flat. The claws on Mipha's toes scrape against the hard ground in a way she's not familiar with after living in the peaty soil of the Domain as the plant life inevitably fades once again, back into scraggly grass and weeds. 

Zelda doesn't falter when she steps into the first patch of snow and the air goes white with frost. The chatter of the small village below hangs in the air when faced with the abrupt silence of the mountain range before them. Mipha follows her, hesitating when the snow crunches under her feet for the first time in her life. It's cold but not entirely unpleasantly so, and Zora are well-built to survive far lower temperatures if needed. 

"Are you still okay?" Zelda's voice makes her look up. Her face is tinted red with cold, but she's still smiling faintly when she steps back towards Mipha. "We've gone so far already. We don't have to keep going if you don't want to."

Mipha looks around from where they are, across this strange new vantage point of a world she's never seen in her few decades of living. It's blurry and faded like something out of a waterlogged storybook she'd found discarded in a pond, and it's not enough.

"I want to keep going," she says, and Zelda nods with a grin.

Mount Lanayru is still shrouded in fog, burning scarlet in the light of the sunset from the opposite side of Hyrule. There's no indication that a dragon waits somewhere within it, save for the charge in the air that seems to block out. 

The blizzard that hits only minutes after offers them no warnings. It comes with the silent thunder of snow and nothing more, blotting out their senses until the world might have ended around them and Mipha would never have known. They only consider turning back once, but the only direction that exists in the wake of the storm is  _ forward.  _ That is the route they take.

Mipha doesn't shiver, but she watches Zelda desperately blow warm air into her palms and thinks she might understand how to. She pulls Mipha close, gently wiping snow and shards of ice from her jewelry with a soft smile, and presses forwards with their hands locked together.

"This isn't even the coldest I've been," Zelda says abruptly after what could be hours of walking in silence, looking at Mipha instead of the few inches they can see ahead of them. "Years ago, just after my mother died, my father sent me to pray at a lesser-known temple near the leviathan fall in Hebra. I might've died there if someone close to me hadn't forced me to get out, but I was so angry at the time I didn't care." She brushes more snow out of her hair and huffs. "This time, at least, I have you. Freezing feels much nicer when it's with someone else." 

Zelda laughs weakly, "I'm sorry. But if I don't talk all I'm going to think about is the horrible  _ snow _ in my boots. It's miserable!" She squeezes Mipha's hand. 

The world goes dark with no more warning than the snowstorm gave, a shadow falling over them both, and Zelda is first to look up in her confusion.

She steps off the edge of a cliff with a noise somewhere between a gasp and a yelp, far too quiet against the storm around them. Mipha grabbing her only sends them both off the sharp drop. 

Zelda is the one that takes control of their fall. She pulls them both fully upright and leans into the slope of the mountain, slowing them only slightly but enough so that when they land in a pile of snow, they both sit up unharmed.

The wide copse of evergreens they've landed in is still covered in snow, though it at least has a clear dropoff where the mountain--perhaps this side of Hyrule--ends altogether. The blizzard falls softer here, but any landmarks are still cloaked in blurry white and gray. Zelda is more focused on testing the wall of the cliff they've fallen down, searching for a shelter to ride out the rest of the storm. 

"Here!" She calls, and Mipha rushes to her side. A cave cut into the mountainside is just within reach, cut off by a prior rockslide that has left it only accessible to someone who could climb. Mipha can't help the pang of guilt when she tries to jump up to the narrow entrance and only slides back down, claws scraping uselessly on the frozen rocks.

"Princess, it's too steep--" she cuts herself off with a gasp as Zelda grabs her around the waist, kneeling so Mipha can stand on one shoulder. She hesitates until Zelda nudges her further upwards, pushing off her shoulder and through the rocks. She lands in an ungraceful pile at the covered mouth of the cave, slowly sitting up and moving away to give Zelda the space to fall through as well.

It's almost pitch black, even with Mipha's superior night vision, and silent save for the screaming wind outside. Perhaps they've spent too much time in subzero temperatures or covered in snow, but the cave is significantly warmer than the outside. The little light available to Mipha is blotted out by Zelda pushing her way through the rocks as well and landing with a thump on the stone beside her. She pushes herself up, silhouetted only by her golden hair.

"Ah-- this isn't nearly as bad as it could be. It's only a question now of how someone might find us." Zelda vanishes the moment she walks away from the light at the entrance. Mipha only keeps track of her by the click of her boots and the echoing drip of melting snow. She circles slowly around the cave before she comes close enough for Mipha to see her again. "There's something in the center, but I believe it's just another dormant shrine. Fascinating, how far they reach..."

She sighs, slumping against the nearest wall. "The cold is hitting. I--I don't think I can keep standing. Will you sit with me?"

Mipha hurries to stand and sit again next to her. Her fingers are still so cold when she takes a hand in her own. Zelda sighs in what must be relief, though Mipha surely doesn't offer her any extra warmth. 

"You must stay awake," is all Mipha can say. It feels so bland, so useless for the situation. Zelda's mouth curls into a faint smile as she nods along. "Can you talk to me? Please tell me something, something you like. What about this shrine we’re in here with?" 

"I won't know shit about the shrines until I'm given my power," Zelda hisses. Mipha flinches as she curses, but she doesn't move away. Zelda only shakes her head slowly and turns to where it must be, hidden in the darkness. "I have nothing until it awakens. Nothing but prayer, no matter how long it will take. Goddess above, Mipha, I don't want to lose you for so long."

Mipha takes one of Zelda's shoulders in her hand and she recoils, biting back a hiss. Once she recovers, she's already refusing to meet her eyes. 

When Mipha pulls her hand away it comes warm and wet, and when she holds it to the sliver of light the white of her palm is the same color as her scales. 

"I scratched you," she realizes in muted horror, a million different apologies running through her mind. When did it happen? When they fell? When Zelda helped her up? It doesn't matter. 

She can't see the length of the cut in the darkness, but she presses her hand against what she knows is there like it might stop the bleeding. Zelda holds fast when she tries to pull the other one out of her grip.

"I don't know what to do." Mipha worries at her lip, fighting the urge to sob or squeeze her hands and make Zelda's wound worse. "Please, Zelda, tell me how I can help."

"You help so much, Mipha," she murmurs, "it is always so cold when I'm without you." Mipha doesn't ask, too occupied with offering what little medical care she can, but Zelda continues regardless of her silence. "It always feels like I'm encased in snow. Like ice is frozen around my hands. It comes and goes, but it will only soothe when we're together. And nothing I research can explain it; the only factor I can find is  _ you _ ." Zelda pauses when Mipha finally looks up, even though her eyes have fluttered closed. "Do you feel something like that, too?" She leans her head back against the stone walls of the cave and sighs. "We didn't even get to see the dragon."

"Stay awake. Please stay awake with me." She feels so repetitive. She feels so useless. She just wants to make her warm again.

"Zelda," she breathes, moving to squeeze her hands around the cold ones of the princess so tightly, she feels her joints complain against the silent stagnancy of their enclave. " _ Talk to me _ , please. Tell me, what does Nayru govern over?"

Zelda laughs, hardly more than a wheeze, but her eyes are still clear and bright against the lack of light when they open to stare up at her like she's something far more radiant than she'll ever be.

"Law," she says, and finally she tightens her grip on Mipha's hands in return. "Emotion. What makes us human. What makes life worth living. What  _ keeps us _ alive." Her other hand comes up and thumbs at one of Mipha's head fins like she might brush bangs away from a Hylian woman's face. "Love."

They both open their mouths to say something at the same time, but Zelda cuts them both off with a sharp gasp. She winces but doesn't jerk away and the cavern flashes blue so brightly, Mipha is blinded for a few seconds. It takes even longer once her eyes have adjusted to realize that the light is coming from her, from where their hands connect. Bubbles are suspended in the air around them like they've just dived into the water together, like something familiar that has always been with her, unknown and unperceived.

It feels warm.

Mipha tries to say something, a joke that won't land or some sort of question or  _ anything _ to bring humanity to something so mystical and so  _ her _ , but she looks up at Zelda and is rendered speechless again.

Zelda, who is staring at her, not the magic streaming from her fingertips, eyes wide in awe and the ghost of a smile playing on her lips as spectral bubbles caress her face. The tear in her work outfit is tinged around the edges with maroon, but the skin Mipha can see underneath is whole and unscarred. 

The magic fades slowly, though the glow just around her fingers remains. It leaves her hands numb, like she's gotten too close to a shock arrow. Zelda's hand around hers brings her back to the moment as she sits up more fully, letting a full breath in and out of her lungs in what feels like the first time since they've entered the cave. 

"That was magic," she says, then shakes her head as if to clear it. "And  _ that  _ was a useless thing to say. How did you do that?" 

Mipha stares hard at her hands and their residual glow, but nothing more happens. "I...I don't know. It was just...what you said..."

"About love?" Zelda finishes for her, and she looks up again.

"About love." 

Her voice is a breath above nothing, and even that fades with a whispering sigh as Zelda leans closer. She stays still, both of them holding their breath until Zelda pauses, face scrunching in what might be either fear or disappointment.

Mipha is the one that closes the distance between them. Zelda's lips are warm against hers, slightly chapped from the biting winds and  _ perfect _ . Somewhere in a time frame that doesn't matter, before the world wasn't whittled down to what was and wasn't them, Zelda has wrapped her arms around Mipha's neck and tugged her forward, close against her like so many other times they've held each other that day.

Mipha pulls back from Zelda to stars behind her eyelids, and when she opens them she's blinded once again. This light is golden and so bright it illuminates the entire cave, reflecting off the glossy surface of the shrine behind them. Where it touches, it brings something soft and still, something pure. Something divine.

Zelda takes one hand back, the other still pressing Mipha to her side, so they can both see. A perfect triangle is emblazoned on the back of her hand, so bright it hurts Mipha to look at. 

"Hylia's power," Zelda breathes, before tears flood her eyes and she sobs into her glowing hand. Mipha holds her face as gently as she can, terrified beyond all measure that she will look up and somehow be  _ distraught _ , but the moment they touch again Zelda surges forward and kisses her harder. 

It's just as good as the first.

It takes several minutes to realize that the howling wind outside has gone silent. When the searing light of Hylia's power fades, Zelda helps Mipha back out of the cave before she follows. The snow has stopped completely, and only a few pale strings of clouds linger in the darkened sky.

"I don't want any more snow in my boots," she grumbles, shaking her hair out of her flushed face as she slides down the rock pile. Mipha is still laughing at her when she turns and renders herself breathless again.

The ocean sprawls before them, blacker than the sky where it stretches across the horizon. The faint light of the moon plays across the shifting water in soft waves, breaking against a shore hundreds of feet below them. There are mountains far in the distance, swallowed up by the darkness of the sky and water alike, but even with them there it seems to go on forever.

Mipha doesn't move until Zelda is at her side, tucking a hand around hers. 

"It's beautiful," she finally breathes, and she feels more than sees Zelda nod. "Maybe now we can go see the other side of Hyrule. For you." 

Zelda's hand squeezes tighter, and she lets out what might be a sigh or a laugh. "I can see Lanayru Mountain from here. If we can find the snowfields from there, we can get back home. They'll be worried about us."

Mipha finds it surprisingly easy to push down the guilt she feels from that. Still, she nods and begins to turn away from the ocean when a sharp gust of wind nearly blows them both off their feet. 

They stumble together, helping each other straighten up in time to watch the largest creature Mipha has ever seen crest the slight hill they stand on, mere yards away from them both. It seems to extend forever as it flies up until it's directly above them, mottled aqua scales shining like they're lit from every angle with a sky blue inner light. 

Each myth Mipha has grown up hearing about the goddesses and their infinite beauty, infinite power, feels truer by the heartbeat. 

The dragon spirals around them like a slow, graceful ribbon, and as its massive head passes them by Mipha watches its eye, gold ringed with blue, fix on them. It dips once and then soars up, to an inclined snowbank that will serve as a pathway if they tread carefully. There it pauses again, spinning in slow circles and never moving further away.

"It's guiding us," Zelda murmurs, her eyes locked on the dragon as much as it seemed to be staring at her. Then she turns to Mipha and her face softens into a smile. She holds up her hand with Mipha's still held in it, the light between them shining with blue and gold.

Mipha smiles back, and they walk towards the dragon as one.


End file.
